It is known to preserve blood and its components using conventional gas-impermeable plastic bags for storing blood and its components. Usually such bags are produced by sealing two flat blanks by their perimeter, which permits high manufacturability of the production process and low cost. These bags are highly reliable when used in a conventional manner because only the weight of fluid inside the bag exerts pressure onto the sealed seam, which can be considered a joint. Consequently, the pressure of a gaseous medium, if any, inside the bag generally does not exceed atmospheric pressure.
However, bags for keeping and storing biological material in a gaseous medium that is under pressures that exceed atmospheric pressure are limited by the strength of the sealed joint. Taking into account the character of load exerted onto the sealed joint when the bag volume is expanded, the strength of the sealed joint must be considerable. Adequate strength could be ensured by increasing the thickness of the bag material, by selection of material that provides a monolithic sealed joint after sealing, by additional reinforcement of the bag through limiting the variation of its shape when gas is pumped into it, and by other methods. However, such methods would lead to an increase in bag cost, which is undesirable because these bags are disposable products. These methods can also lead to potential changes in bag permeability to gases (which can be important for storage of certain blood components), changes in process of its use, and the introduction of new materials (whose contact with blood could potentially have unknown consequences).
What is needed is a system, method, and/or device for using gas permeable plastic bags for storing biological fluids in a gaseous medium under pressure.